Collar.



No. 646,394. Patented Mar. 27, I900. w. F. sommzas.

COLLAR.

(Application filed Oct. 29, 1898.)

(N0 Model.)

'WILLIAM F. SOMMERS, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-FOURTH TO \VILLIAM. H. OSMER, OF SAME PLACE.

COLLAR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 646,394, dated March 27, 1900.

Application filed October 29, 1898. Serial No. 694,979. (No model.)

. To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM F. SoMMERs, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of St. Louis, in the State of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Horse-Collars, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in leather horse-collars; and its objects are, first, to produce a horse-collar having the outer edges of its back roll secured together with a seam, which also fastens directly between said edges a strip of elastic yielding cushion material to prevent cutting off the seam-fastenings by friction while the collar is in use, and, second, to construct the outer seam of a horse-collar in such a manner as to prevent pivotal twisting of the horse-collar at the middle seam between the front roll and back roll of the collar by affording a yielding. reciprocating motion in the seam at the outer edge of the large roll, thus developing a material improvement in horse-collars and materially increasing their durability and usefulness.

To enable others skilled in the art to which my invention appertains to make and use the same, I will now proceed to describe its construction and operation, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which Figure 1 is a View in perspective of the face of my improved horse-collar. Fig. 2 is a View in perspective of the back of the horse-collar, Fig. 3 is a cross-section of my improved horsecollar on line 3 3 of Fig. 1.

Similar letters and figures of reference indicate similar parts throughout the several .views.

A represents my improved horse-collar complete, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, comprising the front roll 1, the body or large roll 2, and the elastic yielding strip 3, secured in position by the seam 4:.

5 and 6 represent, respectively, the back and face of the large roll of the horse-collar, which are of leather, having the elastic yielding strip 3 secured between their lateral edges, and 7 represents the usual collar-filling, of straw. The strip 3 is to be of elastic yielding cushion material, such as cloth or felt, and is secured in the outer edge of the large roll of the horse-collar, directly between the edges of the leather portions 5 and 6, by the seam 4, which may be made with a row of stitches or in any other suitable manner, the inner edge of said yielding cushion-strip being contiguous to the straw filling '7, while the outer edge is free andexposed;

The application of my elastic yielding cushion-strip -to horse-collars, as shown, creates a cushion at the vital part of the collar-via, the shoulder-seam-that will yield under direct pressure from draft and reciprocate to its normal shape when released, thus obviating the necessity of draft-springs used to prevent galling of the animal's shoulders.

As the elastic yielding cushion-strip allows the leather-back 5 of the large roll of the horsecollar to yield at the outer seam, its durability is accordingly increased over horse-collars having the ordinary rigid'outer seam, which causes them to twist or pivot at the rigid seam between the" front and back roll, and thus rapidly destroy the collar. A further tendency of the elastic yielding strip as applied is to increase the durability of the seam in I which it is inserted by keeping the outer edges of the leather portions 5 and 6 apart at the seam. When these edges get hard and dry, as they are apt to in ordinary horse-col- 8o lars, constant friction cuts off the seam thread or thong, and thus destroys the collar. This is also true Where a leather welt is used instead of my elastic yielding strip,as the leather welt, being nece'ssarilynarrow and thin, soon 8 5 gets dry,"hard, and rigid,while the reciprocating motion imparted to the face and back of the large roll of the collar by movement of the animals shoulder causes the hardened stationary leather welt to act as a saw and out off the stitches of the seam.

It will be observed that the essence of this invention is the creation of a yielding outer seam for horse-collars by securing an elastic yielding strip of felt or other cloth cushioning 5 material directly between the outer edges of the leather face and back portions which form the large roll.

Having thus described my invention, What tenings constituting the seam, substantially I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patas shown and described. 1o

ent, is- Signed by me at St. Louis, Missouri, this A horse-collar, provided at the outer seam 29th day of October, 1898. 5 of its large roll with a strip of elastic, yield- WILLIAM F. SOMMERS.

ing cushion material, secured therein directly WVitnesses: between the outer edge 01 the collar-back and AUG. W. NIEHAUS,

the outer edge of the collar-face, by thejas- F, W. 'DOERING. 

